POKE-MAN — Restaurant in Philadelphia

Had the MOST bizarre experience at this place, my first time ever ordering here. First let me start off by saying the poke bowl I ordered was actually quite tasty BUT one star nonetheless, justification follows.

Here’s what went down. So I order a Poke Bowl with ahi tuna, salmon, kale, edimame, pineapple and tofu skin. I forget to add my topping and crunch, the lady does not prompt me to do so, so I only notice as I am waiting for my bowl to be prepared. When I notice, I tell the lady and she tells me to let the person making my bowl know what I want for my topping and crunch, so I say (in perfect English, grew up my entire life in NYC) that I want to add seaweed salad and peanuts for my topping and crunch.

This is where things get interesting. The guy preparing my food then gives me an extremely perplexed look, so I repeat what I just said. Then he turns to the lady at the cash register and says, in Chinese: “I can’t understand what he’s saying through his Korean accent.” By the way, I can understand everything he’s saying because I AM OF CHINESE DESCENT and was raised in a Chinese speaking household! Of course I’m secretly fuming but I keep it contained so it doesn’t show. Like that statement was bewildering and just inaccurate on so many levels... like where to even begin.

To top it all off, I get home and open my poke bowl and realize that not only did they completely forget to put in my pineapple, but they also gave me like three leaves of kale and just threw in a bunch of romaine lettuce like it was the same thing or I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.

What the heck PokeMan, step up...

I have ordered food there a few times (at least ten times because it is good even if it's not very good to eat raw meat a lot). However, the last few times I ordered, I never got what I asked for in my bowl. 1) They might have run out or something and instead they put something else as a substitute. I would like to know what it is. 2) I kept ordering anyway because they have a rewards program where you buy 9 and get one for free. When I went to claim my free one, the person looked at me in a weird way (my impression) because obviously I'm not paying this time. The one I got for free was the tinest bowl I could think of which was not filled completely and they still got the dish wrong. There were so many things that was supposed to be in it and I could not find it. I regret not taking a picture and posting it online. 3) Suggestino: If I can add 5 ingredients but I choose 3 only, I expect to get larger portions because if I pick 5, I get small amounts of each 5 ingredients. If I pick 3, I get the same small amout of it and the bowl is not completely filled. Sounds like my fault for not adding other stuff. That would be my suggestion is to add more of the stuff I choose if I chose less than 5 ingredients. Thank you for reading and doing...

The food is solid but the service sucks. I ordered a build-a-bowl, paid for it, then 10 minutes later got told theyre out of the protein I ordered. Okay, so I ask to sub a different protein. I'm rudely told they're out of that too. Clearly this guy is annoyed that I'm just trying to get what I paid for. At this point, I ask what I'm supposed to do now because they cant provide what I actually ordered, but proceeded to make the rest of my food without it. Refused a refund, can't give me what I ordered and paid for, and was generally rude about the entire thing, seeming annoyed at me for wanting to at least get something comparable to what I already paid for. I won't be returning here after this experience, there are a dozen other places nearby on campus with similar food I can go to without the attitude I got here.

EDIT: Posted this while still eating the partial food they gave me. When I was done the guy who previously had been rude came over and offered me a partial refund. Pretty sure they figured out when I was typing on my phone instesd of eating that I was...